Minghao yawned as he walked into Angelo’s Modern Pizza. Last night was rough, he had three last minutes deliveries and didn’t get home until 12 something. The person who lived above him was having a party until 3 something and Minghao knew making a complaint wouldn’t do anything. With only 3 hours of sleep, Minghao was ready to die or at least strangle his upstairs neighbors. Nobody would know, it would be the perfect crime. His thoughts of murder were interrupted by Angela passing him some breadsticks… Wait they didn’t sell breadsticks.

“Did you forget to put the cheese inside again?” Minghao laughed and bit into the cheeseless cheesy roll.

“Hush, I’ve been busy, we have more orders than normal today and Sungmin hasn’t come in yet.” Angela huffed.

“Isn't he like an hour last now?” Minghao asked as he rolled up his sleeves, the cheeseless cheesy rolls can wait, Angela could use some help.

“This is the fifth time this month and it's only been 2 weeks!” Angela was aggressively kneading the pizza dough. “I swear, if he's late one more time, he's fired. I’ve given him so many chances.” Angela let out a disappointed sigh. Minghao squeezed her shoulder before pulling out finished pizzas from the oven and boxing them. Sungmin finally showed up when Minghao was loading up his car with orders.

“How mad is she?” Sungmin asked nervously.

“She’s pretty pissed.” Minghao said softy. Sungmin was a nice dude but he’s been slacking off a lot recently. Minghao nodded at him before driving away.

“!” Minghao hissed when the light turned red. He was half way threw the deliveries and everything was going smoothly until he was stuck at a red light known for taking forever to change. He drummed his fingers against the wheel and bobbed his head to the radio, wishing the light would change soon. Minghao let out a sigh of relief when the light turned green, once he finished the last deliveries he would be able to take a well needed break. Nap time, here I come. He thought to himself. The last house he went to was surrounded by police cars and Minghao was about to leave but an officer stopped him.

“Excuse me but are you the pizza boy from Angelo’s Modern Pizza?” The officer asked when Minghao rolled his window down.

“Uhh, yes? Is there a problem sir?” Minghao asked timidly. God, he hated talking to police officers, they always made him feel uneasy.

“No, I just wanted to ask if you knew anything about the resident.” The officer said with an unnerving straight face.

“Mr. Park right? He orders from us every other Friday. He was kind of a but he tipped well.” Minghao laughed nervously. The officer wrote down what he said.

“Alright, you’re free to go. Drive safely.” The officer nodded at him and walked back to the house. Minghao quickly rolled up his window and drove away, not wanting to stay any longer. When he entered Angelo’s he brought the undelivered pizza and garlic knots with him as he walked to the employee break room, pausing when he noticed the “HELP WANTED” sign hanging in the front window. Sungmin was nowhere to be seen when he entered the break room and he didn’t question it when he flopped onto the couch. Angela nudged Minghao with her foot.

“Did Mr.Park not want his pizza? Does he want a refund?” Angela asked.

“Something happened, there were police everywhere. Asked me about him then I drove away.” Minghao summarized tiredly.

“I hope he’s okay. I wonder if it has anything to do with the missing cases.” Angela paced around the room. The missing cases were something about people disappearing without a trace and so far the police haven’t found any bodies nor clues except for a pure 24k gold coin left at the scene of the crime. Or at least that’s what Minghao gathered from the gossip floating around, he didn’t exactly have easy access to the internet let alone a t.v.

“I’m sure he’s fine.” He mumbled. Angela smiled at him before leaving the room and Minghao took that as his que to finally fall asleep. Angela woke him up two hours later, just in time for the dinner rush. Minghao regretted not eating anything before his nap but Mr.Angelo was kind enough to give him a tray of brownies that were burnt on the bottom. Minghao smiled when he noticed that Ms.Im was on the list. If Vernon was sort of his honeydude than Ms.Im was sort of his sugar… mommy? That sounds weird… Anyways, Ms.Im didn’t order pizza often but on the rare occasions she did, she always tipped a large amount of money. Probably out of pity but Minghao couldn’t complain, that pity tip saved his on rent a few times. He made sure to stop at her house last since it was the farthest. The run in with the police earlier today should have reminded him to be more wary but the giddy feeling he got when thinking about the cash he was about earn canceled that out and plus the roads were mostly empty. Minghao made it to Ms.Im’s house without any trouble and he waited eagerly as he ringed the doorbell.

“Good evening ma’am.” Minghao greeted when Ms.Im answered the door.

“Hello, Minghao.” Ms.Im greeted back, taking the boxes out of his hands and handing Minghao his tip.

“Have a nice night, Ma’am.”

“You too, drive safely.” And with that Minghao walked back to his car, counting the bills in his hands. Minghao let out a bubbly giggle at the tip, 270,000₩(~$250). The smile never left his lips as he drove back to Angelo’s Modern Pizza. He quickly frowned when he saw Angela standing in front of him with a black carrier bag but the smile on her face made him blush. He traded the payments for the bag and turned to walk back to his car.

“Ask him out already!” Angela yelled out before he could escape.

“Damn it, Vernon.” Minghao muttered under his breath as he started up his car. Minghao was happy to see Vernon but he could live without Angela’s constant pestering.

“I can’t just ask him for his number!” Minghao told Angela once.

“You already have his number ask for a date.” Angela smirked.

Minghao sighed at the memory, he liked Angela, she was one of his few friends but he really wished she would stop with the dating advice whenever Vernon made an order. Also, Minghao never saved Vernon’s number to his phone, because he’s not a creep, thank you very much.

Minghao double checked the address again to make sure he was going to the right place. Over the months Vernon has ordered from: his house, his grandma’s (creepy) house, his family vacation house (in the middle of the woods), a log cabin (also in the woods), his friend’s warehouse, his family’s secluded beach house (It was a 2 hour drive, but the tip was amazing and Vernon paid for his gas), and his other friend’s warehouse. All the places except Vernon’s house were sketchy and out there, Minghao was always terrified that he got the wrong address but whenever he knocked on the door, Vernon answered. Sometimes one of his dogs would try to poke its head out or one of Vernon’s friends would be there as well but it was always Vernon who answered. The destination this time was different from all the previous ones. Minghao was surprised when he was pulling up to a farmhouse. Minghao walked up to the front door and knocked but no one answered. He knocked again and the typical  horror movie thing happened when the door creaked opened slightly. The lights inside were on so Minghao poked his head through the open door.

“Hello? Pizza Delivery.” Minghao listened for any response but all he got was a whimpered “Help.” Wait… Someone is in trouble! Minghao walked in and placed the boxes on the first surface he saw, then he went to the source of the cry for help. Minghao was surprised when he saw a man cuffed to the ground inside a pentagram. Good job Minghao you have a crush on a crazy person. What made things worse was that he recognized the man, it was Jaekwan, they went to highschool together.

“Please help.” Jaekwan called out to him but Minghao stood there, he wasn’t expecting to stumble across... whatever this was. “Wait… I know you.” Jaekwan his chapped lips, “Seo Myungho?” Well , what was Minghao supposed to do now? He couldn’t just leave. “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help?” Jaekwan asked aggressively. Minghao took one last look at him before leaving the living room. He started digging threw drawers in the hallway tables as memories from high school passed by his eyes. Minghao wanted to curl up and cry somewhere but he buried those feelings and continued searching. He found himself in the kitchen and drawer after drawer he couldn’t find anything. Minghao walked back into the living room and started searching the table near where Jaekwan was chained to the ground.

“Ah-ha!” Minghao found what he was looking for and Jaekwan let out a sigh of relief but looked at Minghao confused when he noticed what was in Minghao’s hands..

“What are you doing with that?”

“Someone has to pay for the pizza. Plus a tip.” Minghao answered simply as he took all the money out of the wallet. Man, Jaekwan was loaded. Who keeps 580,000₩(~$540) in their wallet. With that Minghao walked away and headed towards the front door. Jaekwan kept yelling at him to come back and help him but Minghao ignored him.  Jaekwan. Minghao thought bitterly as he drove away. Jaekwan deserved whatever was coming to him, he was a no good bully and a heartless of a human. Minghao noticed two shadowy figures dragging something towards the house followed by four other figures in his rearview mirror. Minghao shrugged it off, not his problem. The drive was filled with poppy music but not even the catchy girl group songs could lift his mood. Minghao parked in front of the 24 hour gas station and pulled out his ty old flip phone, he went to his voice mail and played the first message recorded. It was from his friend Jaehyun but he could clearly hear BamBam, Jungkook, WinWin and Yugyeom in the background yelling and laughing. The voice messages always made him feel better whenever he was upset, his small group of friends from high school were the only reason he didn’t drop out from that hellhole. Minghao closed his phone and walked into the gas station, he decided to spoil himself with brand name chips, desserts, and candies, along with the biggest slushy possible and a can of cat food. He placed the bags into his car and opened the cat food. The ugly cat limped out of the alleyway and went straight for Minghao. The rest of the tension in his body left as Minghao sat down with the cat in his lap. Minghao noticed that the cat’s fur was damp and he frowned.

“Did someone splash you again?” Minghao always felt bad with how other people treated this cat but he understood that most people viewed stray cats as nuisances.

“One day I’ll take you home.” Minghao muttered softly to the cat, kissing it on the head. The cat looked at him and purred even louder. Minghao giggled as he scratched the cat under its chin.